Sports

Ways to Connect

The coach of the MU wheelchair basketball team led the USA men’s wheelchair basketball team to a gold medal after defeating Spain by a score of 68-52 at the Paralympic Games in Rio.

MU wheelchair basketball coach Ron Lykins is no stranger to Paralympic medals. Lykins coached the women’s wheelchair basketball team to one silver medal in 1992 and two gold medals in 2004 and 2008. After his first win with the men’s team, Lykins looks forward to bringing back the lessons he learned in Rio to the MU wheelchair basketball team.

National Football League owners in Houston overwhelmingly approved St. Louis Rams Stan Kroenke’s bid to move to Inglewood, California. The San Diego Chargers will have the first option to move into the stadium while the Oakland Raiders will stay put in their home market. The Raiders would only get an LA option if the Chargers decline.

NFL owners voted Tuesday night to allow the St. Louis Rams to move to a new stadium just outside Los Angeles, and the San Diego Chargers will have an option to share the facility, The Associated Press has learned.

The Oakland Raiders, who also wanted to move to the area, were left out of the deal, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. The source requested anonymity because he wasn't cleared to talk about the vote, which ended the NFL's 21-year absence from the nation's second-largest media market.

The University of Missouri Athletic Department has named Barry Odom has the school's new head football coach. Odom served as defensive coordinator for MU this season under Gary Pinkel, who announced his retirement last month.

Odom has agreed to a five-year deal, pending approval from the MU Board of Curators.

Odom played football for MU from 1996-99, and then returned to work for the team in various capacities between 2003-2011. He was defensive coordinator at the University of Memphis from 2012-2014 before returning to MU for the 2015 season.

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel will step down at the end of the season because of health reasons.

Pinkel and the Tigers announced the decision Friday afternoon and noted Pinkel had been diagnosed with lymphoma in May. The stunning move comes days after his team threatened to boycott Saturday's game against BYU over concerns about racial strife on campus. Pinkel supported his players.

As a long-suffering Kansas City Royals fan, I was all-in in 2014. The Royals’ playoff run was one of the most exciting stories in baseball in recent years. But, of course, the Royals fell 90 feet short of tying Game 7 of the World Series, and had to go home with just a pennant. I was one of those grouchy people that couldn’t be happy for a while after the game. I took to social media, and posted this right after the game:

Updated with comments from Dave Peacock, John Ammann, and Mayor Slay - A St. Louis judge has ruled that city voters do not have a right to weigh in on public spending for a proposed new football stadium north of Laclede's Landing.

"Judgment shall be, and hereby is, entered in favor of Plaintiff Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority and against Defendant City of St. Louis on Plaintiff’s Petition for Declaratory Judgment. City Ordinance 66509, Chapter 3.91 of the Revised Code of the City of St. Louis, is hereby declared INVALID."

The chairman of the St. Louis Cardinals expressed disbelief and embarrassment about a hacking scandal that has invited scrutiny onto the baseball club.

But while the Cardinals’ managing partner says the controversy will dent his team’s image in the short term, he doesn’t believe that the actions of “roguish” individuals would permanently scar the club.

Arrest and search warrants have been executed against senior FIFA officials and several executives for what the Justice Department says was a corrupt scheme that gleaned "well over $150 million in bribes and kickbacks" over the course of 24 years.

The department announced that it has indicted 14 people from the U.S. and South America — including nine senior officials with FIFA, soccer's international governing body. Seven of the FIFA officials were arrested in Switzerland early Wednesday.

MONROE CITY, Missouri-- If you’re a deer, the shed season is like an annual loose tooth. You have antlers. They need to grow. They hurt. You will do just about anything to lose them. You'll rub up against fences. You'll jump into stuff to knock them loose. You'll rub your head in the wire springs of a bed frame that some considerate soul has left out in the woods.

On Sunday MU’s wrestling team competed at the 2015 National Duals Finals Championship against No. 1 ranking Iowa. The championship was held at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. The championship pins the top two ranked teams against each other, and this year MU had their eyes set on this title all season.

You may have your Bill Belichick and another Super Bowl, you may salute Mike Krzyzewski and his over 1,000 college basketball wins or you may even worship at the altar of Joe Maddon, who's the latest savior ballyhooed to lead the Cubs to heaven above. Forget them all. In the here and now, there is only one coach who stands tallest.

Did the New England Patriots tamper with the footballs used in the AFC Championship Game? The NFL is asking that question, after the host Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts, 45-7, in rainy conditions Sunday.

The NCAA has announced a proposed settlement under which the Penn State football team's 112 wins from 1998 through 2011 that were thrown out amid the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal will be restored. The move would restore late coach Joe Paterno as the most successful coach in major college football history.

A proposed open-air football stadium in St. Louis backers hope will convince Rams owner Stan Kroenke to keep the team from returning to Los Angeles will likely require voter approval of its public financing component.

Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson are midway through the adventure of a lifetime. The professional climbing partners have spent the last 10 days making their way up the Dawn Wall of El Capitan, the granite monolith in California's Yosemite National Park.